C'est Magnifique

I wish I was a better food writer. After you finish reading this blog, you probably will as well.

I won't do the food justice, nor the genius behind it, but I hope the team at L'Escalier at The Breakers in Palm Beach will forgive me for the below roundup of my recent dinner at the legendary restaurant.

Friday was my first time ever at The Breakers, and obviously my first time at L'Escalier. What a spectacle. Water was poured simultaneously into the glasses by the synchronized wait staff. The master sommelier, Juan Gomez, stopped by each table to discuss the pairings. Too bad everything he said was like Greek to me. Him trying to explain the science behind why he paired this wine with this meal as oppose to another one from the restaurant's vault of wines was like me trying to explain sentence syntax and the inverse pyramid to an illiterate. And yes, to Juan, I was clearly illiterate.

Someone at the Friday's dinner table summed it best: "I can't describe the food, but I know it tastes good." Ditto, I say. Ditto.

First course was a "caprese" salad. I use quotation marks around the word caprese solely because the L'Escalier menu did the same. I guess they were trying to say it wasn't really a caprese but instead a "caprese." Nonetheless, it was awesome. I don't know how they did it, but the white circular balls were mozzarella filled and literally exploded in your mouth after pressing your lips together. Don't worry, no deaths were reported at the dinner.

The Peekytoe Crab dish

Served with Argyros Assyrtiko, Santorini, Greece, 2008

Cauliflower Veloute

Served with Puligny-Montrachet "Vieilles Vignes," Vincent Girardin, Burgundy, France, 2006

Colorado Lamb

Served with Buil & Gine "Baboix," Montsant, Spain, 2006

Master sommelier Juan Gomez, one of two master sommeliers at The Breakers

The genius, chef de cuisine Gregory Vassos

Tator and Grandma Part II

While my camera work won't win me an Oscar or Pulitzer anytime soon, here's more footage and photos on Tator's day out with Grandma. I don't know who I fell in love with more: Tator or Grandma.

Tator and Grandma

For anyone's who's ever owned a pet, I'm told an indescribable sense of happiness comes from bonding with one. I'm told a pet - a dog in this case - makes you feel happy in no way a human ever could.

After dog-sitting my favorite four-legged friend, Tator, this past weekend, I can see why. There's something really awesome about a dog unexpectedly coming up to you and licking your face, putting his head on your lap, or barking when he feels you're threatened.

My boyfriend, Josh, and I took Tator to see Josh's 90-year-old grandmother this past weekend. She lives in Boynton Beach in an assisted living home, and we figured she could use a little four-legged loving. Grandma's still sharp, witty, mobile, happy and thoughtful, Josh and I felt Tator could break Grandma out of her normal routine at the assisted living home and, well, add a little excitement to an otherwise mundane Sunday.

For once, we were right. Grandma loved Tator. And, I'd like to think Tator loved Grandma.

The Quote

For this blog entry, here's a topic that has nothing yet everything to do about South Florida. Yesterday I read a quote from Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. Who, you ask? Yeah, I didn't know him either until about a week ago.

Qureshi, a Pakistani, is one-half of men's doubles team that went all the way to the final of this year's U.S. Open. The finals, played on Sept. 10, had one of the best quotes I've heard in a while. When accepting the runner's up award, Qureshi was given the mike and an opportunity to address the 23,000 in the stands. Said Qureshi:

"There's a bad perception that Pakistan is a terrorist nation. We're a friendly, loving, caring people. We want peace as much as you guys. May god bless us all."

What makes the lil' speech even more impactful is that throughout this year Qureshi and his doubles partner Rohan Bopanna, from India, have been wearing the slogan "Stop War, Play Tennis" on their sweatshirts.

Whether or not sports is an appropriate platform for political talk, I'm not here to say. But in this case, I can appreciate Qureshi seizing this opportunity to speak in front of a crowd that saw so much disaster nine years ago. Call it political, call it brave, or just call it a person speaking about the elephant in the room. Either way, it was a message I'm happy to hear.

When We Were Young

We're always trying to find ways to, as my publisher Bernie calls it, "young up" the magazine. Though it's been some time since we've taken an official demographic survey, I can guarantee the base of our readers is around 45-65 years old. While we're grateful to have that crowd, I figure why not bring in a younger breed of readers to our mags?

The idea to "young things up" was met with small opposition. I spoke with George Bolge, the indelibly candid and loquacious leader of the Boca Raton Museum of Art. In short, Bolge gave me his honest, earnest opinion: "Anyone under the age of 65 doesn't have a vested interested in our cities." In his views, young people are more geared toward social affairs and getting their pictures in magazines (i.e., our magazines) and hobnobbing with their friends.

Bolge says until you've spent decades in a city and really have a vested interest in it as you've witnessed the ups and downs, there's no way a person could truly feel an inner capital to move it forward.

Being a person under the age of 65, it was difficult for me to hear Bolge's words. I can't stress how utterly affable he was to speak with, and I never took anything he said personally. It was the way he viewed the world. I know when I'm his age, I'll see things differently than I do now. And, I can't argue there are definitely a few people under the age of 65 who elicit the same characteristics Bolge mentioned.

But I'm looking to change Bolge and everyone else's views of young professionals.

Hence, the upcoming November issue articles, "Youngstown" in Gold Coast and "The 40 Under 40" in Boca Life. Here's a visual preview to the articles:

For "Youngstown," we worked with photographer Josh Ritchie, a young professional himself.

For "The 40 Under 40," we worked with photographer Jason Nuttle, another young professional.

My Meeting With The Man, Huizenga Himself

Breaking news: Wayne Huizenga uses an iPhone.

Yes, the man himself, the owner of half of South Florida, the founder of Blockbuster, the former majority owner of the Miami Dolphins, Florida Panthers and Florida Marlins, prefers the iPhone as opposed to the Blackberry or Droid. As he says, "I'm trying to get my wife to switch from the Blackberry to an iPhone, but you know how that stuff goes."

So how do I know this? I asked the man himself. Our magazine had a chance to interview and snap some photos of him this past Thursday. The venue was the Fort Lauderdale History Center, right off the New River. The full article, written by our publisher Bernie McCormick, will be in our October issue, but here are some snapshots of my take of it:

• He came dressed in a beautiful navy suit, complete with a Miami Dolphins pin attached to his left lapel.
• The man couldn't have been more affable, more down-to-earth than anyone else I've met. He was funny, animated and personable. Sure, his words were more cautious due to his high profile, but he had such an easy way about him. He even asked our photographer, Josh Ritchie, if he could help pack up Josh's photo equipment. Now how's that for down-to-earth?
• He likes diet Coke. When asked what drink he wanted to sip on during our interview, the man himself requested a diet.
• He looks you right in the eye when he talks. Even with little ol' me, Mr. Huizenga gave me the kindness and honor of talking with me, not at me. He listened when I had two cents to give and responded to everything I said.
• Currently, he's 72 years old, NOT 73. Two hours earlier, when I asked my publisher Bernie how old Mr. Huizenga was, Bernie confidently said 73. Foolishly, I actually listened to Bernie, and during the interview I said to Huizenga: "So, Mr. Huizenga, being 73 years old, do you have any plans to retire?" Ummm, yeah, I was quickly corrected.

Overall, I had a blast with Mr. Huizenga. The two hours our magazine team had with him were awesome, and it was nice to discover how such a powerful man can be so grounded. Now if I can just discover how to do business like him...

Cheers to us

My publisher, Bernie, asked me to write about our company's recent successes. In his words, "it's a little tacky" if he writes about it. That's because Bernie himself earned us top honors at the annual Florida Magazine Association awards ceremony this past weekend in Orlando. Yep, the man who I continually poke fun of, the man who pronounces the word "water" like "wroa-ter," the writer himself won us a Charlie Award for his January 2010 portrait on boxing promoter Don King.

For those who don't know, the FMA award is like getting a regional Oscar Award. Magazines from all over Florida are judged against each other. Beyond that, there's amazing seminars and continuing education programs to better equipped us aging journalists.

I attended the Charlie Award ceremony in Bernie's place (admittedly, the only reasons Bernie leaves town is if its name ends in "McCormick," "Notre Dame" or "La Salle"). Happily, I accepted this award on Bernie's behalf. There, the announcers noted Bernie's Don King piece "was a terrific, well-captured portrait" of the extravagant promoter himself.

Photo of Don King by David Martin-Warr

And the best part of it all? Unbeknownst to anyone other than Bernie, his wife Peggy and me, the last line of the Don King story never made it to print. For whatever reason, Bernie's final line -- the best line in the entire story, I contest -- was missing from the final document we sent to the printer. Even with that subtraction, we got off the hook pretty easily as the story wrapped itself up nicely.

More happily, I accepted three other awards for our entire magazine company that same ceremony. For nearly three years now, I've been working with a fantastic young photojournalist named Edward Linsmier. He helped nab us two more awards with his portrait of underwater photographer Chris Leidy and his brilliant black-and-white shots of Haiti after its devastating earthquake.

Portrait of underwater photographer Chris Leidy by Edward Linsmier

Like a proud mother, I'm even happier to announce our fourth and final award, Best Department. Stuart Magazine earned an amazing honor for its front-of-the-book section, Power of 10. A lot of work goes into this monthly department page, with all the credit going toward our associate editor and photographer.

As for Bernie, I know him well enough to see he's outwardly trying to remain nonchalant about these accolades. "I don't put too much [thought] into these awards," Bernie shrugs. But deep down, I know he's pretty proud of himself. Undoubtedly he's already told his entire family, even those in Ireland, about the four-day-old awards.

But I know where he's coming from. As creative people, where everything is subjective, it's always gratifying to hear some validation that you're doing a good job. And because it's all subjective, we have to take each kind award with a grain of salt. A different panel of judges, a different result.

But we're going to savor this moment for a bit. After all the profanity-laced reader feedback we've received this past season, soaking in this moment sounds good to me. As the Irish say, mazel tov.